Engineering Functional Tissue for Repair and Regeneration

Burn injuries remain a major worldwide health problem for both the military and civilian populations. Dermal regeneration, in lieu of scar formation, remains an elusive but highly sought after goal. It is the"holy grail"of wound healing research. The goal of this project is to clinically develop a hydrogel formulation that we have shown has the capacity to promote regeneration of important dermal elements including vasculature, skin appendages such as hair follicles, as well as epithelial and dermal differentiation. The ultimate product for development will be a gel for treating burns and other wounds such as decubitus ulcers, venous ulcers and diabetic foot ulcers where dermis is lost and regeneration is desired. The gel will be suitable for application to the surface of the wounds where it will serve as a scaffold for the regeneration of dermal tissue. We expect the gel to be about 4 mm thick and to be packaged in sterile packages. The gel will be applied to the wound after surgical debridement when the wound is clean and free of necrotic or infected issue. The gel will be secured in place with an adherent dressing such as the Duoderm that is being used in the animal work. From initial animal work we know that it adheres loosely at first, but that after about day 7 tissue in growth has occurred sufficiently to secure the gel in place. Then by day 21 we have found remarkable dermal regeneration in wounds treated with the gel.